MEREDITH
[ 00:00:05 ] Welcome back Portugal junkies, we are so excited to continue our series of interviews that we've been doing with other immigrants to Portugal. Because, mainly, we get a lot of feedback of like 'yeah but y'all don't have kids' or 'y'all move I didn't I've got adult kids at home' or 'I have all the reasons right'. And so we started interviewing people um that we had met through really social media mostly so far with different family structures, so that you guys can get perspective of what that is like for people that are different than Mark and I. Right? So we're really excited to welcome Taylor and Mike today. Welcome, uh which is not Very far from us, how long is it?
MIKE
[ 00:01:02 ] By transition, it's a two-well, it's a three-hour train ride or a two-hour car ride. There you looked it up just in case we were ever going to visit.
MEREDITH
[ 00:01:08 ] You are going to visit, yeah, we're definitely coming to visit that's just done um. But we're very happy to have you guys on, thank you so much for saying yes and giving us some time. And just I'm just i'm excited because we have literally met during through TikTok. This is an interview that we've done in this format and both of them have been through TikTok. And I just I adore that, so. And now we're only two hours apart or something.
TAYLOR
[ 00:01:34 ] Exactly it was meant to be, yeah. We're happy to be here, happy to share our perspective, and honestly, I meet the best people through TikTok.
MEREDITH
[ 00:01:40 ] Love it, I love it, okay! So, really, the first question is, tell us how this all happened for you guys?
TAYLOR
[ 00:01:47 ] Like, you're moving a broad story like whatever got you here to Portugal, absolutely, you want to take it yeah so, so we um we actually did van life, so living in our van, traveling across u . S and Mexico for over three years, we launched that in 2020. So, before 2020, our moving abroad story has a it really did start just before the pandemic and the pandemic changed everything for us. And so, before the pandemic, um I was a lawyer and he's a financial analyst doing that corporate nine to five, which was really more like you know nine to nine and maybe even longer. And you know we had the house, we had the American dream, you know the basic American dream that you would have when the pandemic hit. We were avid travelers, like we traveled every weekend, yeah, every single day we were doing something every week, mostly for concerts but also internationally. And then the pandemic hit and we were stuck in our house, and all we had was our jobs, and it was like, what this is not what life is about? This is not what we want to be doing. And so, within a month, we decided to hit the road full-time in our Van and quit our jobs, became self-employed. Did the whole thing, rented out our house, and uh, every year since then we started extending how long we were outside of the U. S. And every year we realized we preferred our time outside of the U. S. So it started with Mexico, you know the travel restrictions, and then we lived in Costa Rica for a while. Basically by 2022, we decided for sure that we were going to be moving out of the U.S. s permanently, yeah, and from there, it was, what country can we move to? You know, the legal side of it with the visas and our work. And then also, what country has everything that we want? Because we also sold our house in '22, yeah, that was when we pulled the trigger so once we sold our house, we had the freedom to go anywhere in the world, you know? We had our van, everything we owned in our van, and any part of the world was literally our choice. And so, we started looking at what country has everything we want and it was Portugal. And then the D8 visa, the digital nomad visa, was announced right around that time and it was like because we didn't really qualify for the D7 and so because we're still active income people, and so when that was announced, it was a hundred percent of our focus was moving to Portugal even when we were living in Costa.
MIKE
[ 00:04:09 ] Rica or watching YouTubes on Portugal, researching where we wanted to live, everything absolutely, yeah, and my sister, my stepsister, uh, she's not the reason we moved here but she lives in Lisbon so she was a resource for us. Oh, that's and when she started to describe Portugal, we were already thinking of like living abroad and it was coming down to Costa Rica and then we wanted to spend, we wanted to see if we could live in Europe, uh, yes, we looked at Spain, we looked at Portugal, we looked at Germany because I have a lot of friends there, yeah, and the weather wasn't great in those places, the weather was critical like in the van we traveled. To the weather, so like in the summertime we'd go to the Pacific Northwest in the winter we'd go down to Mexico. So we were always chasing warmth and sun and Portugal had all of that. Um and then when the D8 became available, that was when we knew we pulled the trigger right away, we committed.
TAYLOR
[ 00:04:57 ] And honestly, we also wanted to move to Portugal. We wanted to move to Portugal. We wanted a new adventure like we were ready for the next thing after living in the van for three years.
MIKE
[ 00:05:04 ] It does get pretty tiring, that's usually when people upgrade, like you go from whatever you have to, 'Okay, am I gonna continue doing
TAYLOR
[ 00:05:10 ] this we need a bigger better thing and so we were like or do we want to live abroad and that's really kind of the fork in the road and we we wanted something completely new to both of us because um i do speak spanish and i have spent a lot of time in spain and also germany and uh we wanted something where we'd both be learning the and a relaxed culture definitely was a big part of culture but we and so that's like how we decided was we we are very lucky and we do have two dogs so we also they came with us of course all these places but we had maximum freedom to decide where we wanted to go because we do we are true digital nomads everything
MEREDITH
[ 00:05:48 ] We do is online, so is that not not the most addictive thing ever to like? I'll sit here and listen to you, so we're I'm coming up on a year actually it might be like this week our one year was October 4th and I can't; I still have trouble again, this is because we're trying to figure out what we want to do. We are very lucky to even be in that situation where I could be like a year later and I'm you know; we're still trying to figure it out. But hearing you guys talk about your van life and what that actually brings you is what gets me like all excited because I don't know if I could do it again, I don't know if I could do it again but I know That I could live with exactly what you're talking about, which is the freedom to do whatever you want whenever you want, and that's what American, the American dream is now. And that's because you said that right. It's like we had that American dream already; we feel like that because we built our house in Charlotte and then we're in Samarai for what we don't have-we don't have like what, why?
TAYLOR
[ 00:06:54 ] Why do we have a three-bedroom house? We only use two rooms of our house. Well, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, why? Yes, we only needed one. Why did we have two cars when one wasn't even driven ever?
MARK
[ 00:07:05 ] It was just like, yeah, those are the same experiences from our point of view as well. We still own our home, um, up until for now, for now, up until either June-ish or December of next year, because I think when whenever the tenancy finishes with these guys, um, that's it, we just... yeah, you're over it. Yeah, because as you say, it will give us the same as what you've just alluded to which is the complete freedom to decide this or that or something in between, um, exactly the financial freedom absolutely very much like when we made our decision, just think about that.
MEREDITH
[ 00:07:41 ] He's from England, okay, so he moved to the States and then we met and double immigrants. Not married and, and you know, built a house and all that stuff, but he had already done this once, right? So he had already packed a suitcase once, yeah, and went across the ocean and created a new life for Charlotte, not knowing anybody. I hadn't experienced that, and so we always had the option, or at least thought of it like, 'Well, we can always go to England, right? That'll be pretty easy, right?' Very true, other and it was that similar thing with you two where it's like, 'We both want to do something new, not just like it would be new for me but not new for him if we went to England, exactly.' So that was part of our decision making too. It was like If you want an adventure, then we both are going to get an adventure right.
MIKE
[ 00:08:32 ] We're both learning; she's much better than me because there is like a Spanish influence, you know, there's like some similarities and she's very she's fluent in Spanish. Um, but yeah, we're both learning the language, and the Portuguese people just really appreciate it when you try even a little bit like, oh my gosh, yeah, it's been really nice; it's a minute, you know, you make the effort, and it's like, oh, they just want to welcome you.
SPEAKER_4
[ 00:08:54 ] Yeah, yeah, I said this to um, to my new barber because, you know, when you come a lot arrived here, and I needed a haircut and beard so I found
MARK
[ 00:09:10 ] My new guy, and as I was talking to him, I was saying, 'You know, he asked me, you know, how's your Portuguese?' And I was like, 'Not particularly good.' I've been here longer than or I've been here long enough to have picked up some phrases, some words. But I feel like I should have known more because I've lived throughout England and I've been here for a long time and I've been around Europe and different places and things like that, uh. So I love languages, but you know, I kept saying to him the fact that if I start speaking in Portuguese, they're going to reply to me in English because they want to help me along; in fact, what he's doing is he's Slowing me down, but I appreciate the reason that they're doing it so. I don't know, it's just it's one of those things, but I found it so nice.
MEREDITH
[ 00:09:51 ] I'm always so jealous, you know. I feel like kids are so much more... um, they just learn languages so much easier at a young age.
TAYLOR
[ 00:10:02 ] I just wish I was. It's so hard and I... and I talked about with my mom, actually, interestingly, basically at the same time we moved abroad, my mom did too, and so... um, she was learning French when we started learning Portuguese because they were moving to the French Polynesian, and... um, it. We talked about the age and how much harder it is to learn languages as you get older and I take for Granted, it was my major in college, so I take for granted when I started college, I was still a child, like I thought I was an adult, you know, but I was actually literally a child still and I grew up in um Tucson, Arizona, where I was fully immersed in Spanish, and so I didn't realize how easy it was for me to learn Spanish, and then now, you know, I lose some, but it comes back quickly. Learning Portuguese, you know, and in our 30s, versus 20s, versus, it gets harder every time, and I've had to have a lot more grace and patience with myself, and I thought, oh, in a year, I'm going to be able to learn Spanish, and I'm going to be able to learn a year, I'll be Fluent whatever, no, I really did believe that, so it's like you have to have the patience with yourself, but if you're still trying and you're still communicating with people and making the effort, I think that's what matters most, and obviously for citizenship, you have to be a certain level, but you do have to have grace and patience with yourself because I was like, 'I should be better you know, I know through the immigration appointments and all of that, and it's just, it does take time to learn; it does. I'm trying to give myself a little bit of my okay, it's okay, yeah, absolutely, and you're dealing with the moving and all of that, it's It's hard for sure, well, and when you choose to move multiple times, yeah, absolutely, you're focused on the logistics.
MEREDITH
[ 00:11:40 ] In a year, you guys are pro movers now. At least we don't have much stuff; it accumulates quickly, I will say totally does. I have to really watch myself because you know, I feel like we we're actually talking about this on um other podcasts that we've recorded but it's like this place feels so different to us than Porto did and like I love, I really did love our experience in Porto, and I think that we probably did it in the right order because if we had come here first and this one said if we had come here first, we probably would have never made it yeah absolutely you're just enticed by this resort type feel yes um but being in porto for nine or ten months it really does like expose you to so much traditional portuguese culture um anyway i just i feel like here feels more like our potential place and so i have to watch myself about like what what am i already buying again like i revert back to oh you're like trying to build a home or make a home feel warm in the states how it used to be for us yeah every tchotchke you buy is gonna have to be picked up and moved right yep yep it is an adjustment you're are you you're renting right it's an adjustment to
TAYLOR
[ 00:13:02 ] go from owning to renting i would say and um and we are used to living very minimally because of the the van literally for a full year every single thing we owned was in the van in that so um once we sold the house because at least when we had the house for the first couple years you know we could store stuff there and it was a fully furnished you know so we could keep everything there but then we went fully minimal and then we did a similar where we lived in lujboa and pred and the neighborhood that we lived in was all of it was all of it was all of it was all of it was all of it was all um we were the only the only uh english yeah i'm definitely
MIKE
[ 00:13:34 ] I think we're definitely the only Americans.
TAYLOR
[ 00:13:36 ] Very few people spoke English as their first language there, and so we got a jump start in a Portuguese culture. And uh, Portuguese ladies, older women, they love our dogs, so we would speak all the time about our dogs, and it helped us with that, and universally, yeah, yeah, truly, truly it is, and it's so dog-friendly; it's such an icebreaker, you know. But we came with nine bags total, and two of our bags were our dogs like in their bags um, and we ended up getting rid of like a full big bag of stuff that we brought extra, and it was the heavy jackets and stuff like that when we moved.
MIKE
[ 00:14:14 ] down to the all guards so bored under our beds right now because i'm like what's winter really gonna be like here before i get it so it does get cold for like maybe a month yeah about a month you know when it's like really cold what though like uh we we like wear our clothes and we're like oh my god we're like we're like we're like we're our snuggies uh you gotta have a radiator you gotta have the radiator the heater out you know but it's it's not bad it's usually only at night and the humidity can keep it warmer like that's that's what's interesting about here too is it feels like the humidity keeps it warmer in the evening as opposed to the daytime right well i think i was wearing skirts throughout the whole winter i'm trying to think i think i have pictures of me in skirts well i bought my first puffer jacket uh here his first because there was there was like a week where it was just like in the low 60s which is totally fine i think i'm sorry that is not cold to me uh i think your west coast is coming out now yeah 40s or 50s yeah it's totally my west coast so um but yeah there's it's so minimal and it's honestly enjoyable just to feel a different i feel like you get more than one season yeah exactly and it does not last long like by by the end of february or middle
MEREDITH
[ 00:15:20 ] of february it's like it's spring for for a few months it's like yeah it's nice because it hydrates the flowers i was marco poloing with like keep in touch with friends and i'm like oh my god i'm like oh my god i'm like oh my god through marco polo a lot in the states and this week my friend ryan was like because he's in connecticut he's like oh my gosh it's 38 degrees and i'm like what you know i mean we're in the middle of october so it makes sense you know all in new england is actually happening right now could not i was just i looked outside and i'm like this is so weird yeah even in i know we would typically get at the four seasons They just fall, my favorite is always the shortest, and the short one is pretty short too, but um yeah, it was so.
MIKE
[ 00:16:07 ] My spring is my day that, and I was like, oh yeah, I think that we're not all in uh, beautiful to be around exactly some sometimes I don't know if you guys feel this, but it's almost like a little bit of uh, I can't think of a better word, so I'll call it survivor's guilt, where it's like, we came from the states, we know what's going on, weather and everything, and we're just like, oh, this is paradise and it's heaven, and it's like, oh, and I'm sorry, it's cold.
TAYLOR
[ 00:16:33 ] So our family, so being from Arizona was the last place we lived before we started our Travels and um, he's from the Palm Springs area, so it's very similar climate to Phoenix, and it was over 100 days of 100 degrees which is, I just looked at 38 degrees Celsius and it's still 100, over 100 degrees now. So, next week, I think or this week is the first it's gonna break, yeah it's gonna get down to the uh, 78. So it's like it's gonna break, yeah it's gonna break, yeah it's gonna break, yeah it's gonna break. But that's so you have the cold people and we have the hot people, so throughout the whole summer, we don't have air conditioning here; we don't, you know, we just survive on a fan and you can't, you cannot do that, like literally it's. not healthy to do that in arizona so it's just crazy looking back and it's like oh we made the right choice you know and climate is a big factor amongst everybody 100 i mean i think that's probably one of the top reasons we chose to move here what's the question yeah especially now that we've moved from porto now it's just it confirms it it just affirms that this i mean this whole coast is just the algarve in general is just special and you hear people talk about it and you hear how it's like the retiree mecca for portugal but like until you come down here and you actually like get the feel for what people are talking about just
MEREDITH
[ 00:17:50 ] What which is what the little towns feel like, yeah it feels different than any other region that we've been in in Portugal, and they all have their beauty and they all have their their uh history and all that other stuff but it's it's definitely something special here. Oh yeah, sure I mean this one's already like I know I'm probably going to stay in the Algarve so it just depends on which that's great we agree along the the stretch I go. Yeah don't tell my parents yet I'll send I'll send dad the clip of that and he'll be like oh god here we go, like yeah we're just gonna go for a little while we're just testing it out no we're here technically. We said we didn’t know how long we’d be gone, so there you go.
MIKE
[ 00:18:37 ] We’re there indefinitely.
MEREDITH
[ 00:18:38 ] You still don't know; you never know, right? Anything could change, so what are some of the things that you guys had struggles before you moved here to Portugal, and if so, what were they? And like, once you got here, were there any struggles that you think are important to like point out to people who are listening?
MIKE
[ 00:18:56 ] Absolutely, that's a great question because like I feel like the struggles weren’t like a big deal, but it was really like filling out the application, getting all the paperwork in order; um, making sure that the timing of everything was critical. We actually, uh, set an appointment in the DC VFS and we had to move to Texas before we could go to our qualifier, qualify. But we're from Arizona, but we have family in Texas so we we made our domicile in Texas so we could go to DC. So there was like planning things because we were absolutely committed to living here. We bought our tickets to move here on October 4th of last year, but how early we bought them, really early on, yeah.
TAYLOR
[ 00:19:34 ] I think we told our family it was like Easter, we bought oh, there was a there was a Southwest flight sale and it was like just after Christmas, yeah, around Easter, yeah, something like that, between Christmas and Easter, that we bought our first leg of our our flights to um to the east coast to be able to to come to Portugal, and we we just committed hard yeah.
MIKE
[ 00:19:55 ] And when we sold our house, that was that probably that was kind of stressful just to be able to come to Portugal, and we just couldn't sell in the house is stressful yeah. We had to you know stage it and move everything out, sell everything. Yeah, we had we sold our storage unit um, just everything that we had in the storage unit. We sold. We kept some things that we brought to my mom's house like I have some artwork and posters that I wanted to keep um, so anything we really wanted to keep, we had to drive. It from Arizona to California, so like little things like that, you know they all kind of add up, I don't know.
TAYLOR
[ 00:20:20 ] So for us, uh, we did everything ourselves. We did not hire any consultants or anything like that because I am a lawyer and I'm not in an immigration lawyer, but um, our situation is so unique. We actually started a business to be able to have the income necessary to qualify for the D-8 visa. So, we have three businesses. And one thing about the D-8 it has to be active income, it has to be consistent every month, and you know if you're self-employed, it's not consistent. So building up those businesses to be together, that was the combination. Of all three having that consistent income that was hard to do while also trying to do the immigration while also moving, while also you know like on top of it I don't know how people have a full-time regular job and also do the immigration process and that is fully transparent. Like if you have a full-time job and you have a high demand job where you can't like do things on the side then you might need to hire someone to help you out with the process because I honestly don't know how people do it.
MEREDITH
[ 00:21:21 ] Like we did two one-hour consultations before helping us kind of think through like for our D7, yeah and and then after like that we put.
MARK
[ 00:21:34 ] Everything together and said hey this is how we're going to present does this look good give us the check and they were like yep that looks good that's what we talked about that's what we did in retrospect would you have done it differently with a consultant I think I would have still probably had the first one because we weren't retired in that sense, in the tradition.
MEREDITH
[ 00:21:55 ] We had a real estate business so we could just set up transfers from right absolutely coming through.
MARK
[ 00:22:01 ] I think in a similar way, so you've got to show it in a certain frame. Yep, so knowing that we could do that and that that was okay, I think that really helped me just. Sit with that and be confident if anything, I probably wouldn't have done the second one because we'd gone through it or you had gone through it backwards, forwards, sideways, left, right.
TAYLOR
[ 00:22:22 ] I was prepared for anything and everyone's situation is unique, so you; it's when you have a consultation, especially I think when you're self-employed um and have self-employed income, I think that it's hard for other people to i've dealt with this with my taxes and all of this stuff like it's just it's hard for people to understand exactly, especially like as kind of new age jobs, content creation that kind of stuff people don't understand. Um, our form of income very well so we've dealt with this for many years but that was really hard to. How do you like you're saying? How do you display yourself and present yourself in a way that Portugal actually wants you because Portugal has to want you, they don't; they're not going to let anyone in like they have to actually say yes, this is a good fit, you know kind of thing and um that was the most stressful part I think.
MIKE
[ 00:23:13 ] Yeah, I think. The other thing is family so we're really blessed in the sense of her family um we all travel like her mom when they retired they bought a sailboat sailed to the French Polynesian islands changed their Mind now they're doing uh on the states they were going to live in Spain, they got they got approved, they got approved and then living it up, yeah they went there on a cold week and they were like, no we're not going to stay like instantly but like telling everyone what we were going to do, and the good thing is like, they know us, they know we're travel addicts, they know we love to just do adventure and see the world, so it wasn't like a surprise but it was really just like communicating it to everyone, and um I have aging grandparents, she has aging grandparents, yeah, we knew it would be harder to see them, my uh one of my grandparents he um
TAYLOR
[ 00:24:02 ] It was so happy that we were going to Portugal, and he was dying when we left, and we knew, and he knew, that we wouldn't be attending the funeral, like we all knew, you know. Um, but it's a hard thing to when you miss the first funeral, you know. And then there was a second grandparent of mine that passed away, again. It was like great lives, you know, great long lives, but still, it's like you're missing that. And then and then, little things. You because we were had already been traveling so much, we knew what it was like to miss a wedding every now and then, you know, like a cousin's wedding or something, or a birthday party or a baby shower, but
MIKE
[ 00:24:41 ] I think this was the first time that we had been missing the the big end of life things, yeah I think we were able to do a lot of it in van life like we attended baby showers in our van and stuff so it feels like we were a part of everyone's life, the really important that we needed to be yeah the things that were like so important we wouldn't miss.
TAYLOR
[ 00:24:56 ] And then but when you're here, you can't go back and forth, especially when you're waiting for your residency card, you literally can't leave. Luckily um my family is very understanding and as his mom is super understanding, and we are very grateful our parents have the freedom and flexibility to come visit us, but we knew I think a big challenge was we knew moving here our grandparents would not be coming to visit, um, and if they did it would be 'wow, I can't believe you came to visit like that's crazy, like my other grandma; she said, 'no, I might... I have two other grandmas they both are like, 'nope, never getting on a plane to Europe', and again, like I'm past that point in my life, and I totally understand it, and yeah, that was I think that was the biggest challenge, like emotionally, and knowing that we were going to miss things and miss seeing my... some of my young family members growing up, you know, and but the reality Is my brother lives in Costa Rica, so I knew kind of we've had this international family dynamic for a long time now, so we kind of knew a little bit what we were getting into. More so than um, I knew that we were going to miss seeing my family members but maybe someone who's doing it for the first, they're the first of their family unit ever to move abroad. Like you knew too, Mark, like, you know what it's like to move abroad and not have those same connections.
MARK
[ 00:26:07 ] I think, you know, once you break the mold and you start doing these things, especially if it's in you. And I think this is one of the things that I've learned from my experiences through growing up. My father was in the army. We traveled around a lot through Europe, through different other places. And I always, I always look forward to being the new kid at school.
SPEAKER_4
[ 00:26:28 ] Wow.
MARK
[ 00:26:28 ] That's great. Like 11 times or several different schools all over different age ranges and things like that. And I think that gave me my lust for travel and to experience different cultures, different things, see different things with my own eyes rather than just on a TV screen.
SPEAKER_4
[ 00:26:47 ] Absolutely.
MARK
[ 00:26:47 ] If that's the way you want to be. And equally, there's nothing wrong with just watching it through TV. But for me personally, just the opportunities to break the mold and not travel because you're told to, but travel because you want to.
TAYLOR
[ 00:27:03 ] Yeah, absolutely.
MARK
[ 00:27:04 ] It's a really big difference.
TAYLOR
[ 00:27:06 ] That is so, yeah, that's so true. And I've never been in the military, a lot of my family's military, but not my parents. And we moved a lot growing up as well. And that's how I lived in North, South, East and West of the US. And same thing is I never really enjoyed living in Minnesota. And so, being able to choose where you live, that's the one state I was like, 'never again'. But once I became an adult and got to choose where I went, I chose, I'm going to leave Minnesota and go back to Arizona, first choice, and then study abroad in the Galapagos. I was committed to just traveling and doing as much as possible. And he also, we had similarities. We both lived in California and Tennessee.
MIKE
[ 00:27:50 ] And as soon as we met, we started, we went on a cruise together to, yeah, just a cruise.
TAYLOR
[ 00:27:56 ] That was his first time out of the US, was a cruise to, and we went to a Caribbean cruise.
MIKE
[ 00:28:02 ] And ever since then, it was just like, we have to do this all the time. Like, let's go see other places. I felt like I was scared probably because of all the stuff, you know, how we were raised. The US media. Yeah. The media makes you scared to go other places. And we've learned now that's so, you know, nonsense. Yeah, exactly. So yeah, those, I'd say those are two of our biggest hurdles.
TAYLOR
[ 00:28:24 ] And Portugal allows you to travel a lot. That's another reason we chose Portugal.
MIKE
[ 00:28:27 ] I mean, once you get your card.
TAYLOR
[ 00:28:29 ] Yes. Once you get your card, which we have, as of August, I got mine in August.
MIKE
[ 00:28:33 ] That'll be a great story one time.
TAYLOR
[ 00:28:35 ] Did you get yours in August? Yeah. So the way that we did it, our moving abroad, this is actually some, we never had visited Portugal before coming here, before moving here. So when we bought our, like we said, we, so we were in the San Francisco zone for the VFS. So then we re-domiciled to Texas, had our appointment in DC, because it was the soonest available. We were like, 'Let's get out of here.' So soonest available. And then we were able to come for three months on our tourist visa, had our appointment, came on our tourist visa, which is 90 days in a 180-day rolling period. And so we came here with the hopes, like fingers crossed, our visa; worst-case scenario, our backup plan was either to go to Ireland or the UK because you can do that, you know. Absolutely. And. Yeah. We didn't want to, with two dogs and our stuff, go back and forth every 90 days, but we were approved. We found out we were approved while he was in Manchester, actually, on a trip.
MIKE
[ 00:29:36 ] I was in Manchester. We're going to a concert. Yeah.
TAYLOR
[ 00:29:39 ] So then we went back to the US at the end of our 90 days, literally day 89 for me, because he was in the UK for three days, day 87 for him, came to the US, to his mom's house. We mailed in our passports to [the] office to get the visa and. Or whatever office it is now. I'm forgetting. It's not the VFS office, is it?
SPEAKER_4
[ 00:29:59 ] OK.
TAYLOR
[ 00:30:00 ] And then we already had booked a round-trip flight back to Portugal. Fingers crossed that our passports came back in time. They did. We got lucky. Every time we got lucky, you know, educated guesses based on the timelines of other people. And then we moved. So officially we came back to Portugal, our visa, that temporary visa you get started in January for us. Yeah. And so then we had our last appointment. On. It was March, March 4th, March 4th. Yeah. And so our visas, our official visas, the eight, like the two-year visas started in April. So we kind of got a bonus chunk of time, basically October through April, that a lot of people might not choose to go that route. And I'm grateful we did, because it's how during that three-month tourist visa period, that's how we decided where we're going to live. We fixed some of our issues hard to find a place from abroad renting. We fixed some of our issues. If you're on the date visa, it sounds. It's called digital nomad. That's not really what it means. It just means remote non EU income. And they require you to have a lease for six months. So it's a little different. And we thought we were going to be traveling around all of Portugal, you know, so month here, month here, month here, month here. They got back to us saying that our lease didn't qualify that plan of month month. So we had to find a long term lease and all of that. We did that during that tourist visa period. And I think that that was really helpful to be here on the ground while they were reviewing the visa.
MIKE
[ 00:31:25 ] And then when we, when we got here, like officially, the difficult part was that our appointments were same day in two completely different places. I think she is the Portuguese speaker between the two of us. So it was it was a little nerve wracking. She had to go all the way to Porto.
TAYLOR
[ 00:31:41 ] Yeah. So the region east of Lisbon, right on the border of Spain. Eight and a half hour bus ride from Lagos.
MIKE
[ 00:31:49 ] And mine was in Lisbon. Luckily, knock on wood. That was amazing.
MEREDITH
[ 00:31:53 ] We had the same thing happen to us. He had to go to Viana do Castelo, which is one of the most beautiful places we've been in this country. Is that north the north? Yes, it's about an hour north of Porto. And I had to go to Braganza, which is northeast. It's really cool. But yeah, I mean, I might as well have gone to Spain. I mean, I was just I was on the border. Yeah, I had to bus it. But mine was not eight hours. So I will tell you mine was much shorter than that. But yeah. But it felt really weird because, you know, everything we've done was together. Right. You had each other to back.
TAYLOR
[ 00:32:27 ] Yeah, exactly. And if your incomes are if your businesses are together, everything I, you know, organize how the income is seen. So we had to study.
MIKE
[ 00:32:36 ] We had to reprint everything.
MARK
[ 00:32:38 ] So we had doubles of everything.
TAYLOR
[ 00:32:39 ] Each has a packet.
MARK
[ 00:32:40 ] Did you have a couple of evenings of, okay, welcome to tonight's study lesson. Right. Mark, can you go there tomorrow? So this is the file for this. This is the file.
MIKE
[ 00:32:51 ] She did that for me, too. Mike, it's not that I don't trust you.
MEREDITH
[ 00:32:58 ] Not that I don't trust you. It's just that I've been doing all of this. And he's been doing this. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Uh huh. Okay. I got it.
MARK
[ 00:33:08 ] It's like a gas thing. The oil, isn't it? Like the old knocking donkey. Yep. Yep. Yep.
TAYLOR
[ 00:33:14 ] I think you just cross your fingers. And the hard part, ours were at the same time. So if he needed something from me or vice versa. Right. We couldn't communicate with each other. Because we were both being at the appointments at the same time.
MARK
[ 00:33:25 ] It was crazy.
TAYLOR
[ 00:33:26 ] It was nuts. Yeah.
MEREDITH
[ 00:33:28 ] That was the hardest thing. Through that hurdle, all four of us. Yes. Absolutely. The hurdle is done. Thank goodness.
TAYLOR
[ 00:33:34 ] That was the biggest, absolutely the biggest hurdle was you don't feel like you can be relaxed and like you actually are living here until you get the card. Absolutely.
MIKE
[ 00:33:45 ] It's a little bit of stress every single day leading up to it.
TAYLOR
[ 00:33:48 ] Yeah.
MIKE
[ 00:33:49 ] 100%. Yeah.
MEREDITH
[ 00:33:49 ] Definitely. Don't feel as committed. And the minute you get your card, you're just like.
MIKE
[ 00:33:53 ] The world's shaking.
MEREDITH
[ 00:33:54 ] You can breathe. Right. Absolutely. Like, I have to worry about if something crazy happened at home. Right? Like, that was my big worry during that time. We were here to explore this country. So like, I wasn't sad to be here. I was just worried. Absolutely. That if some shit hit the fan at home, I mean, I'd basically have to, I'd have one trip.
SPEAKER_4
[ 00:34:14 ] Yep.
MEREDITH
[ 00:34:15 ] And that's even questionable sometimes to me. Because I've seen stories where they're, you know, and so it just made me nervous that like something, you know, of course. Absolutely. That would happen during that period of time.
MIKE
[ 00:34:28 ] Can I round out your story real quick? Yeah. So we got the approval. My card came like six weeks after our appointment. So I got mine in May, like right after my birthday in May, I think.
TAYLOR
[ 00:34:40 ] Yeah.
MIKE
[ 00:34:40 ] Hers, because of the place she went to, we had a friend that showed us all the statistics and data on what the average turnaround time is on some of these. Mine was a lot quicker than hers. Hers was a hundred days. Yeah. And we had, we had a couple of vacations planned. We were going back to the States for a music festival in August. Yeah. And I was confident. Don't worry. She's been communicating with them. Like there wasn't the one thing she had to do was pay for the visa at the payment issue. But they didn’t. Yeah. Their system wasn’t working. So she had to get that sorted. It took like a month to do it. And I thought, oh, we have the payment. And then we had the photos. And then we got this paper trail. Like, no, no problem. No matter what they're going to let us in. And I was way overconfident. Luckily, she got her residency card like a week before we are before trip. Yeah. And we didn’t know what the experience was like. So then we, we go through the airport, we give them our, our passport and we give them the card and they scan the card and everything. And so they know that you can come back in or they know how long you've been here and stuff. And we're like, Oh, you wouldn't have let us back in.
MEREDITH
[ 00:35:46 ] The way I look at it is this. The way I look at it is this. And this is going to lead to the next question too. Sometimes I see people on these forums trying to manipulate the process for their own, you know, benefit, you know, and I get it. If emergencies happen, all that other stuff. But like, when they're like, I don’t have a trip to Italy planned. Right. And they’re like, what’s going to happen if I overstay? And I’m like, no, don’t do it.
MIKE
[ 00:36:13 ] Yeah, exactly.
MEREDITH
[ 00:36:14 ] How can you ask someone to allow you into their country and start off on that foot of being like, 'I'm going to try to manipulate this my own way'? And I just, those things just grate on my nerves because I feel like those are the people that we typically talk about who don't assimilate well. Yeah. I have no desire to be part of the simulation and the lack thereof a lot on our podcast. So I would love to know from you guys, like what have you seen in that trend of like those who assimilate well and how, like, how do you do that? And like those who don't or don't try to bother assimilating into that's a perfect question.
TAYLOR
[ 00:36:59 ] So one number one thing is learning Portuguese. So we started taking Portuguese lessons before we left. And I would highly recommend that we take them with a Portuguese with Anita.
MEREDITH
[ 00:37:09 ] And even if you do too, we didn't, we've, we've gotten her online course, but that's what we've done. We haven't done any like one-on-one online course.
TAYLOR
[ 00:37:22 ] I'm highly recommend. I'm sure you guys highly recommend her as well. And I always say, even if you aren't ready to jump the gun on the course, you could follow her on social media and get tons of tips. That's one of the top resources. You're entertaining.
MIKE
[ 00:37:36 ] I actually, this is how committed I love her videos. Yeah. Her Instagram.
TAYLOR
[ 00:37:40 ] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All of our vaccines. So, especially if you're moving the Algarve, very helpful. Um, and people can tell, I speak all Garvey and Portuguese when I travel other areas. So, um, but through the immigration process, I would say that my reading proficiency before learning Portuguese was honestly like it was close to like 70 to 80% because of Spanish. If you say the words out loud, it sounds like Spanish. Like you can figure it out. Um, after taking just a couple of her courses, reading proficiency is like, like now I'm confident I can basically read anything. And, understand it fully, but through context, you know, uh, doing the immigration process already taking her courses was insanely helpful. I would recommend that by far, if you see someone who has no desire to learn Portuguese, that's often a signal to me, like they're not, they don't care about joining the community or being part of the culture.
MIKE
[ 00:38:32 ] We didn't come to Portugal, but take advantage of Portugal. We came to join Portugal. Yeah.
TAYLOR
[ 00:38:36 ] We want to be a part of it. Yeah.
MIKE
[ 00:38:38 ] They have so much here that we love and like it just fits our personality. So much. So why wouldn't we want to assimilate?
TAYLOR
[ 00:38:44 ] And, and I think that's the number one, the number one thing I see is when someone's like, 'I'll learn it someday.' I'm like, 'Oh, I don't know if you will.'
MIKE
[ 00:38:51 ] I think a tip I have for assimilating is we, we just started doing CrossFit again and we used to do it all the time back in school. Your video, your video, your CrossFit, can't hide anything in CrossFit. Uh, but joining like a program. Yeah. A program or something that you're into, like then you meet more Portuguese people and you assimilate that way. They'll invite you over. You can practice your Portuguese, you become friends. And I think that's a great way. Because it's great.
MEREDITH
[ 00:39:21 ] We were doing body pump in Porto and I, I was with you, Taylor, I started learning. So much just because you, you take for granted when you're in a class and they're speaking English to you and telling you what to do. Right. And when you go into a class like that and they're talking to you in Portuguese and you're seeing what they're doing, you're, you're mimicking what they're doing. And then you're hearing, clicking what they're saying, you're like, Oh, okay, got it. Like, pause, stop.
MARK
[ 00:39:48 ] When you're doing Body Pump and you're laying down and so you, you know, you've got to try and hold form. You're laying down, heads on the floor, blah, blah, blah. And they're over on the other side of the room saying 'okay' and off they go in Portuguese. And you're thinking, am I going up there? And then you sort of cock in your head to try and see what they're saying. Oh my God, oh my God.
TAYLOR
[ 00:40:11 ] Overwhelming for this one. It's, it's, yeah, it's a learning experience. That's a great tip though about assimilation. And one of the biggest things is that music's a huge part. Another, another hard thing is we're very, very tied into the music community. We had a very strong Fish and Grateful Dead community in the U. S. That was a hard thing to leave because throughout our van life, like we were doing over three concerts a week.
MIKE
[ 00:40:35 ] We would travel, going to concerts.
TAYLOR
[ 00:40:36 ] Travel, you know, and that was definitely a hard community to leave. Because, you know, like Dead & Company, they're older, they're not touring Europe. Fish, we hope will tour Europe next year, but again, they haven't in a long time. So it's things like, like that. And we're hard. So we knew we wanted to get into the music scene here and that was another way. So we, we were at the farmer's, farmer's market-another way.
MIKE
[ 00:41:02 ] Oh yeah, that's another one. Go to a farmer's market.
TAYLOR
[ 00:41:03 ] Farmer's market is typically older Portuguese farmers that don't speak much English. So you have to kind of, you learn about fruits and vegetables really well there. Absolutely. Yeah. And what's local and seasonal and everything. That's another way, like assimilating to the culture of the food, the food is a big thing. So if someone's telling me they try, they don't like Portuguese food. I have a lot, I have some people I know that they just, oh, I don't like Portuguese food. I don't like seafood. I'm like, weird place to live, you know, interesting.
MEREDITH
[ 00:41:31 ] I even found so far in Tavira where it's like, we were never like wishing for, or, or wanting for traditional, local Portuguese stops in Porto, they're everywhere. Right. And I found here, other than like your seafood places here, right here along the river and that kind of thing, where have you seen a local Portuguese, like a type of place recently here? Maybe we haven't explored enough. Again, we've only been here two weeks, but I'm interested in that because those are my, some of my favorite places. Absolutely.
TAYLOR
[ 00:42:09 ] We talk about that too, because when we have visitors in town, what's, okay, so Lagos has over 400 restaurants and it's a population of 30,000. So that's like, it has cuisines from around the world. Some are amazing. Some are like, oh, you know, it's like. Gorilla. Yes. Gorilla. Exactly. I love Gorilla. So you would, we, our favorite places a lot of times aren't Portuguese restaurants, just because there are so many non-Portuguese restaurants. Yes. The T-A-S-C-A, that's where a lot of local Portuguese places are, or the Portuguese places that are in the cool, the old town area are like expensive high-end Portuguese restaurants. So it is similar. I find it much easier in Lujaboa to find more Portuguese food, I guess I would say, but the farmer's market is where we go for a lot of Portuguese foods because they sell little like baked goods and dishes. Yeah.
MIKE
[ 00:43:05 ] I would say like anything food related is where I excel in Portuguese. Yeah. Like asking for it, wanting it, eating it. And I remember watching Anita lessons. She was describing the cuisine from North to South and like, you know, we have more seafood down here and it's a little different in Lisbon and then in Porto there's more meat-based dishes. Yeah. Heavier. Heavier dishes. Yeah. Yeah. So I think when people say, you know, they don't like Portuguese food, well, it's like which part? There's so many. Yeah.
MEREDITH
[ 00:43:32 ] What does that even mean? That's like somebody saying, I don't like American food. What the hell is American food? I don't even know. Seriously. Seriously.
MIKE
[ 00:43:39 ] We have asked each other that question because it's almost like a game. Like, well, what is it that we can't get here? And I'm like barbecue, maybe, but they have great barbecue.
MEREDITH
[ 00:43:48 ] I guess I could from the North Carolina. I get it. Exactly.
MARK
[ 00:43:51 ] I know which, I know what it is. I know what it is. It's peanut butter and jelly. Oh my God. Which we do have. Oh my God.
TAYLOR
[ 00:43:58 ] That's the grossest thing on the planet.
MARK
[ 00:44:00 ] Peanut butter or jelly, but not together.
TAYLOR
[ 00:44:02 ] You're crazy. We do have both peanut butter and jelly here. Yeah. So we do. Peanut butter and jelly.
SPEAKER_4
[ 00:44:08 ] Peanut butter and jelly.
TAYLOR
[ 00:44:08 ] Yeah. That's actually a great thing though. I think that the food and the language, those two things are the heart of a culture, kind of, and that leads you to other pieces of the culture. We go to a lot of local festivals. So you have major music festivals here that have international artists. They have Rock in Rio, for example, and even Knox Live. Those have a lot of international; it may have had more Portuguese artists, I think, than still very international. Very international. But we go to a lot of the local free festivals too. So they have, you know, people are like, oh, taxes. Well, I'm very happy that our tax dollars pay towards having a party every week here. Yeah.
MEREDITH
[ 00:44:47 ] We don't even. Yeah.
TAYLOR
[ 00:44:49 ] Yeah. We have to choose what we do every week because there's so much to do. And we go to festivals and oftentimes here where we live, and throughout the Algarve, we are one of the only Americans at this festival, and they're all Portuguese. And some of our American friends are like, oh no, I don't want to go. And that's another, like I was saying, the people who don't assimilate, they don't have any interest in going to local events, and to each their own. Also, I know that they're a lot later at night a lot of times than what maybe we're back used to back in the States. So, you know, these events are ending at two or three in the morning, which is not typical of a family-friendly festival in the U. S., but that's where we try a lot of like the local dishes and cuisines. Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. We went all over Portugal for these festivals of bands, musicians. And throughout the summer, we attended as many concerts as we could across all of Portugal. And we ended it with being press and being media at a Portuguese music festival, Meio Colorama, which is a major one. But we were the only I think there's maybe one other person where English was their first language and it was fully in Portuguese. All the execs, all the instructions, everything was Portuguese. And those kinds of things and meeting people who are actually working and living in Portugal and in our sphere, in the music scene, and connecting with those people that has helped us definitely integrate into the culture a lot. So like music is a good language.
MARK
[ 00:46:18 ] Yeah, absolutely. I think that, you know, you're putting yourself in situations that are completely out of general comfort zones. Yeah. You're comfortable in elements of those more than other elements of those. Absolutely. But I think that, again, just going back. It goes to the point of why people want to move, they don't, you know, or why people should move if that's what they want to do. Not to try and recreate what you knew in a different place. It's to become uncomfortable, comfortable being uncomfortable.
MEREDITH
[ 00:46:53 ] And become part of the place that you're moving to.
MARK
[ 00:46:55 ] And just try and get into some of that. I mean, the amount of people that are walking along the riverside where the restaurants and the cafes are. Yeah. Stop and say hello and hopefully have a little bit of a conversation broken in Portuguese and English. Perfect. And the next time around, they'll remember. And the next time, you know, you should build up those sorts of things, you know, whether it's just going in for a coffee or going in for a dinner.
TAYLOR
[ 00:47:22 ] It's easy to become a regular here. So because places are small, you know, they'll start to recognize you.
MARK
[ 00:47:27 ] Yeah. It's so nice. I think that makes it better. Yeah. I really think that was a big. That is a big difference between Porto and here.
MEREDITH
[ 00:47:36 ] Oh, yeah.
MARK
[ 00:47:37 ] You know, I can see that being the small town and getting to know a community assimilating that much quicker, easier, perhaps than in Porto, which was sort of a very stretched out city. True. Yeah.
MEREDITH
[ 00:47:52 ] I also told him, you can't show your ass here. You're not allowed to show your ass here.
MARK
[ 00:47:57 ] You can, but only once.
MEREDITH
[ 00:47:59 ] Okay. You're in Tavira. There's like 20,000 people here. We can't show our asses in any way. It's not important that there's anonymity. Yeah. You can kind of blend in there. You could, you know, I would say your ass one bar and then.
MIKE
[ 00:48:18 ] Sometimes it's fun to pretend to be anonymous, you know.
TAYLOR
[ 00:48:20 ] Sometimes it's nice to play the card, but I also do stand out, you know, I have colorful hair. There aren't that many Americans living here. I'm very much stand out. I, I frequently tell people the adjustment. You know, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't. I'm like, like the hardest adjustment for the hardest adjustment for me personally isn't. Coming to Portugal wasn’t the moving abroad. The hardest adjustment is we lived in a lifestyle where we wouldn’t see another human for 10 days. Because we were living in the van boondocking out in the middle of the desert, literally not seeing people. You could definitely show your full ass everything else you want to show for days on end. And we would go town to town. So, you meet people, have these great experiences. Okay. Onto the next. Oh, I was like, you're in Sep. Is different in that people remember you, and they remember you really well, so it's like it is very different. And the lack of anonymity was a hard um transition. I forgot about that, you're absolutely right, and it is smaller and like you know my social media isn't huge but I've been recognized a lot from social media here and that's very different, like that would never happen in the because I'm a very small creator there, so it's like that that is like oh wow it was a shock at first, I guess um. And now we I take more time you know to kind of like we'll we'll have at home days, hibernation days, we call them.
MEREDITH
[ 00:49:37 ] We tell our friends we're just not gonna talk for a while. Are you an introvert at heart?
MIKE
[ 00:49:44 ] I am, I am a very introverted person and Tay is
TAYLOR
[ 00:49:48 ] I think I wasn't, and I am now, she's an introvert/ extrovert now. Yeah, I think I-I wasn't, I never considered myself introverted, and then I think doing um, our travels and stuff, I have realized I'm a lot more introverted. I think I just was seen as extroverted to so many people that they assumed that's how I am.
MARK
[ 00:50:06 ] Yeah, we did a podcast actually, we recorded it today, um, and it was one of the subjects was about friendships and how at this age do we move to another country, how to create how hard that is. Yeah, yeah, look like, yeah, um, and one of the things that came out is well, we've known you before already, but you know Meredith, although she's a performer. She's done theater, song, dance.
MEREDITH
[ 00:50:28 ] They sang, people told me I was an extrovert, for you know, I just learned, I don't know, I was like, I don't know, I'm 45 now, so I probably have known this for maybe four or five years, I mean it took me 40 years to figure it out but it's because you're listening to everybody tell you your whole life. I'm loud, I'm you know, I'm, I have a lot of energy when I'm interacting with people and so people assume that about me, but I read one day, it was like what is the real difference between an introvert and an extrovert? It's where you get your energy from exactly and it's not from other people. For me, I love interacting. With other people, and I find value and connection in that, but it drains me too. So I don't get my energy from it. I get my energy from my quiet time, and my recharging, and my you know, showing my ass in the middle of nowhere because I can type of thing, and I don't get it from the opposite where I know like my best friend, especially she gets her energy from being around people, and she feels energized when she's you know had this great interaction with people, and I feel like okay it's not that I'm it's not that I'm playing a role. It's just when I read that one day, I was like oh, I get it.
MIKE
[ 00:51:41 ] Yeah, I he's always known he's an only child.
TAYLOR
[ 00:51:44 ] I think I'm the Oldest of 10, he's an only child, so also yeah. I have a blended family, but we all grew up together. You know, I'm super close with my stepsisters. He's an only child, he could be introverted. I mean, he plays well, that he wasn't introverted, well yeah, what else is he gonna do?
MIKE
[ 00:52:04 ] I've played golf my whole life, so there's an introverted sport right there, very uh, only child's intro, but I mean it's not like I've been a loner or anything. It's just like you were saying Meredith. I get my energy from relaxing, you know what I mean, coming back to our place and that's part, part of it, I think was maybe exacerbated in the van because we were alone and like She's my best friend, so I don't need anybody else.
MARK
[ 00:52:28 ] Recluse is like
MIKE
[ 00:52:28 ] 'bye
MARK
[ 00:52:29 ] ', honestly exactly what you just said there about you know you two are best friends and that's that's the way you you roll in that sense those are the very words that I use today on our podcast about how weird that's so cute, my best friend, and that's why yes I want to go out and make these new acquaintances and lead into friendships and things like that if it happens then great if it doesn't I still have my best friend with me, yeah exactly.
TAYLOR
[ 00:52:54 ] And I think that relieves a lot of anxiety, I think so too, I, I imagine um, I do know a few people who have moved here as single people. And it is harder, just it is, especially if you're not extremely extroverted, especially if you're not fluent in Portuguese, you know like it's or have a high proficiency in Portuguese. It is more challenging. I can see it um at the same time we're very close friends with people who are came here single and they have a great community and they have like met so many amazing people that's probably a next interview I need to find someone to interview that is single.
MEREDITH
[ 00:53:28 ] We should hook her up.
TAYLOR
[ 00:53:30 ] We have, we do, we have uh uh one of our friends is from San Diego and he is single here and he just bought a house here, so that would be good, he's a year. ahead of us. I'll have to ask him if he'd be interested; I don't know if he's not a creator, so I don't know.
MEREDITH
[ 00:53:47 ] Another different perspective because I know that there are people out there who are sitting there in the U. Single wanting more, wanting to dare themselves to go and do this, yeah you know, and they probably have a lot of different worries or anxiety that we wouldn't have had because we're not single, so yeah, absolutely a hundred percent. I find that fascinating, it's so funny.
MIKE
[ 00:54:09 ] I remember thinking to myself, I was like, people move to Portugal all the time; there's no reason that two intelligent people can't figure it out, or even like a single intelligent person-if people do it all the time, we can figure it out and that's exactly right; we've done weirder stuff, you know.
MEREDITH
[ 00:54:26 ] Thanks for another story as we wrap up, can you share whatever you want to share about how people can get in touch with you? We didn't even get around to talking about your businesses but I wanted to like make sure that you have the opportunity to plug that um so how do people find you, yeah?
TAYLOR
[ 00:54:44 ] So our uh content creation side of us is Rome Away From Home; we're on YouTube and TikTok and Instagram all the channels, and that is the easiest way to get in touch. with us is send us a message on instagram or head to our youtube or anything like that and we cover basically music tourism and life in portugal there and uh we're excited for what's to come around the corner on that stuff and then uh we also our other business is live music threads which is we create mashups of different artists that we're fans of so it's music inspired apparel and accessories and stuff like that like this is one of our shirts taylor swift fish crossover i love it yeah we're big huge swifty huge fish fan grateful dad this this shirt actually was what got us to portugal that uh it blew up and it really yeah it's what started our business so um the drummer for fish john fishman he wore this to take his kids to the eras tour so it and and then everyone saw it and everyone bought the shirt it was like a really awesome moment and it's so cool because we met so many great people online through our businesses both through rome away from home and live music threads actually because uh we've like connected with people and friends that we've now traveled mexico u .
SPEAKER_4
[ 00:55:59 ] Sometimes, different shows stayed in their parents'
TAYLOR
[ 00:56:01 ] homes all because we met them through social media, which I think social media has so many issues but it has the benefits of connecting people like us together. Most of our friends, actually most of our closest friends here, somehow met through social media one way or another. That's true, I would say yeah yeah, the majority of our very close friends we have great community here now and it all started with social media absolutely, which is funny, I never thought it brought us together and I'm just so glad that we're willing to just share your story with us like I just again sometimes you just meet people on social and you're like
MEREDITH
[ 00:56:37 ] 'I would be friends with them in real yeah you know' and when you feel that way, you should, you know, explore it.
TAYLOR
[ 00:56:43 ] You can get a lot of insights. about someone by looking at their so especially short form you know tick tock or reels if you watch a hundred reels by someone you're probably going to get a good intuitive insight into what they're doing and what they're doing and what they're whether or not you would get along well and for us that is I felt the same especially like you know one reason we moved here is less politics but I think that that also our desire to get away from the American politics all four of us was uh benefit and we could see that in in videos and stuff and it's it's like um I think you get a really good insights into how someone communicates and what They like to do and stuff through social media, and like what's important to them, like what's their who are they, you know, absolutely makes them tick, yeah it's hard to fake it that long that they're not gonna allow in their life exactly well and like, you can only, what's cool about today's age and with content creators and stuff is, you can't, you fake your whole personality for years on end, on you, I mean, could you, could I guess technically, but it would be very hard, yeah, lots of energy, exactly way too much energy, I feel like, I feel like half of any social media that I post is with the desire of deterring the people that I don't want.
MIKE
[ 00:57:58 ] In my yeah, absolutely, really helps me.
MEREDITH
[ 00:58:00 ] I love blocking people!
MIKE
[ 00:58:01 ] I remember watching your podcast stuff on TikTok and like, you guys think exactly like we do, like oh my god, like so many things we have in common, it was really exciting to do this podcast with you guys, yeah, well I cannot wait to figure out when you're gonna come and visit into Vera because I know when we come to Lagos because we'll have to talk about the documentary stuff about that, yeah, absolutely.
MEREDITH
[ 00:58:25 ] You don't have a car right?
TAYLOR
[ 00:58:27 ] You don't, we don't either!
MIKE
[ 00:58:29 ] One of the reasons also, we were tired of driving in the van for three years, so we didn't want to drive anymore Costa.
TAYLOR
[ 00:58:35 ] Rica, you can navigate through the bus because that was our second choice, you know. But reality is where we would live in Costa Rica, we would need a car and I think one of the big pushes of uh choosing Portugal, besides the obvious, the climate, the people, the culture, all that was we do not need to have a vehicle right like we don't have to drive. I have not driven since we left the U.S. Yep, and now it's been a year over a year I haven't driven in over a year, and I'm so happy about it.
MEREDITH
[ 00:59:03 ] And I'm the six-shift driver too, so I'm like, no, we're not renting nothing; I don't want to drive-it's about the same for me because I did go home um, to see my parents in May, so I did drive them to the store when we went back to the passport thing. He drove; I was like, no, I'm done, oh my gosh, thank you guys so much, this has been so fun, thank you very much. We'll keep everybody listening posted on when we're going to get together, yes, we'll stay in touch for sure, yeah, absolutely, it'll be fun, but thank you guys, see you next time, I'm sure we'll have a great day, thanks very much; have a wonderful rest of your day, bye-bye. Listen up, future expats, for more content about our move, the visa process, Portuguese culture and destinations, and tons of support resources for your own decisions and potential. Move abroad, follow us on Instagram and TikTok at Portugal Junkies.
MARK
[ 01:00:03 ] Stay in touch and help us reach more people by subscribing here and following us there, cheers y'all, and help us reach more people by subscribing here and following us there, cheers y'all.